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Godparent’s Corner

Thank you for sponsoring a child through NPH USA!

What it means to be a Godparent

As a Godparent, you are essential in the life of your Godchild. Your ongoing financial support provides food, clothing, healthcare, education and a home. You are also a part of your Godchild’s extended family, offering critical emotional support. Your letters give security, encouragement and a sense that the child is important to someone outside the world of their NPH home. This relationship helps him or her build a strong foundation of self-esteem and confidence that can be sorely lacking.
Learn more about being a Godparent below and feel free to contact us whenever you have a question.

Letters to Your Godchild

We strongly encourage you to write to your Godchild – the children eagerly await receiving letters and e-mails from their Godparents. This contact helps create a special, loving relationship between the two of you. And what greater reward is there than bringing a smile to a child’s face? Every time you send a letter to your Godchild, he or she will write back to you! Click here for tips and more information.

“The relationship between the children and their Godparents is much more than just a financial one. The children love to learn about their sponsors’ lives and vice-versa. The kids really depend on this connection.”

– Lena Zuniga, Sponsorship Coordinator, NPH Honduras

Visiting

Godparents are welcome to visit their Godchildren! Spending time with the pequeños (“little ones”) lets you see first-hand the transformative effect that love, caring and acceptance have on children who once struggled to survive.

We organize trips to the NPH homes on a regular basis, making arrangements for accommodations, ground transportation and activities. Learn more here!

If your Godchild visits the United States as a member of one of the NPH music and dance ensembles, we will send you a schedule of the performances, giving you an opportunity to meet him or her and enjoy the show. You can see a full list of special events here.

The greatest gift that Godparents can give their Godchildren is love! However, small gifts such as stickers, drawings, photos and cards can be sent to your Godchild through NPH USA. Please make sure that whatever you send is flat and fits into a 6” X 9” envelope.

Due to increased international shipping costs as well as increased incidences with the customs offices in the receiving countries, NPH USA cannot accept packages with gifts on your behalf. We know how meaningful it is for the children to receive your gifts, and we are saddened to hear that sometimes the packages we send are not received by the NPH home. Packages containing multiple and heavy items will be donated locally. However, you are able to donate to the Sharing Fund which allows the staff at the home to purchase a gift for your Godchild on your behalf.

If you visit your Godchild at an NPH home, you may take a gift. However, we request that it be something that can be shared by all of the children, like a board game, jigsaw puzzle, or book. For more information, please call 1-866-690-1703 or email sponsorship@nphusa.org.

If you need more information about sending gifts, please don’t hesitate to contact your regional office or for more information on corresponding tips and regulations, click here.

Yes! You may view your godchild’s current photo, read their biography, and send a letter through our E-Correspondence Program! E-mail us to make sure that we have your current email address, then enroll here.

In order to protect the privacy of both our sponsors and our children, we request that you do not connect directly with your Godchild through social media, including Facebook.

NPH USA has procedures in place for ensuring appropriateness of content in communications between sponsors and children. All sponsor communications are screened for inappropriate content, and any issues or incidents are documented and reported for follow-up action.

The Internet is an uncontrolled and unregulated media. Recognizing this, we ask sponsors to respect the privacy of the children and their families by refraining from posting personal information about their specific child on the Internet, such as the child’s full name, date of birth, and community information (e.g., name and location). In order to protect the privacy of both our sponsors and our children, no outreach or exchange of contact details should take place between sponsors and their sponsored children during the sponsorship through social media, including Facebook.

If you have questions or concerns about our policy, or have been contacted directly by your sponsored child through social media, please contact our sponsorship team at 1-866-690-1703 or sponsorship@nphusa.org.

A child needs love and encouragement every day of his or her life. Godparents are encouraged to continue their sponsorship as long as they are able, though we sometimes ask a Godparent to transfer sponsorship to a new child when their Godchild leaves NPH. Usually this happens when a child completes their education and becomes independent.

If we ask you to transfer sponsorship, we will attempt to match the age and gender of your previous child whenever possible; however, we will ask you to sponsor a child with the greatest need.

Children stay until they feel prepared to live independently, and depending on how far they want to pursue their education. Some children leave NPH and start working after secondary school, while others attend high school, vocational training or go on to university.

When children have completed their education, or before going on to higher academics, they are expected to give back to their NPH family by completing a year of service (año de servicio or año familiar). During this year, they continue to be supported by NPH as they work with younger children or serve in the kitchen, offices, school or farm.

While many children in our care live at our NPH homes until they reach independence, others may be entrusted in our care temporarily because their family is unable to provide for them or because they are referred to NPH through the local child welfare system. In accordance with the United Nations Guidelines for Alternative Care released in 2010, NPH has developed the NPH OneFamily program to provide a continuum of care to children who transition from our homes to reintegrate with family, ultimately helping to strengthen the families and communities we serve. Click here to learn more.

If your godchild is leaving NPH to reintegrate with family with continued support from the NPH OneFamily program, then you may continue to communicate. However, if your godchild leaves the NPH program entirely, they are no longer in our care and we cannot forward your correspondence. In this case, we will notify you and encourage you to sponsor another child in need of your support and encouragement.

NPH USA believes that nonprofit organizations must be fully accountable to the public. We follow accounting procedures established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and are audited annually by an independent CPA firm. We publish an annual Donor Report outlining our income and expenses. Click here to view our 2014 Annual Report. (You may also call (312) 386-7499 or e-mail us to request a copy.)

We proudly adhere to the Donor Bill of Rights and have been noted by Charity Navigator for our responsible stewardship of donor funds. We are also proud to have met or exceeded all 20 standards for charity accountability as established by the Better Business Bureau and have been granted their National Charity Seal.

NPH USA proudly adheres to the Donor Bill of Rights and is committed to respecting the privacy of our donors. When personal information is provided to us by a donor, it will only be used to support the donor’s relationship with NPH USA. We will never exchange, share or sell our mailing list or e-mail list to others.

If you do not want to receive mailings or e-mail from NPH USA, you can notify us by phone, e-mail, or mail and we will remove you from our mailing list.

NPH USA retains donor information on file in order to provide gift receipts for tax purposes and to tailor subsequent communications to the donor. Information is used to complete a transaction, communicate to the donor, and update the donor on child sponsorship, special events and other news. All donor information is kept in a password-protected database on a secure server and is never shared with others. For electronic donations made by credit card or bank account, all donor information is in a password-protected system and stored in a secure location. Credit card and bank account information is used only for processing donated funds and is not retained for any other purposes.

Yes! Your sponsorship gift can be charged directly to your credit card or deducted from your checking or savings account. In January, we will send you a receipt detailing all of your tax-deductible donations for the previous year. This not only cuts down on paper use, it helps us reduce processing and mailing costs – so that more of our resources can go to the children.

Yes. To cancel your sponsorship, please send an e-mail to sponsorship@nphusa.org or call 1-866-690-1703. Please note that if you are paying by credit card or automatic bank withdrawal, we need a minimum notice of five business days to cancel the next donation.